German MEP: the European Commission needs to continue its supervision of the EU funds in Romania

Miercuri, 26 noiembrie 2008, 11:52 English | Top News

The European Commission needs to be actively involved in the consolidation of the rule of law in Romania and Bulgaria and publish all quarterly reports but not only about Justice but also about the capacity of the two countries to manage EU funds, German MEP Ingeborg Graessle declared for NewsIn.

She declared that the decision of the Commission to withdraw 220 million euro of PHARE funds from Bulgaria due to the lack of concrete results in its fight against corruption and fraud should be a triggering signal for the country's officials.

As a member in the budget and budgetary control committees within the EU Parliament, she declared that the European executive was asleep until now. Now, she added, the EC needs to take up the consequences.

For the German MEP, Romania's efforts to stay on the right track were abandoned. She declared that officials need to continue their monitoring on Romania. Romania's SAPARD payments were also suspended for a while but the program will be expanded for another year and thus all payments will be recovered.

Bulgaria is the first EU country to lose 220 million euro from the pre-accession PHARE funds due to its lack of results in the fight against corruption.